Join Dr. Emily Mueller Epstein as she explores the results of her dissertation research within the context of pre-contact houses and households in the American Northwest. Archaeological excavation at four sites on Tse’tse’ede, “The Cold One” (Steens Mountain, Oregon) produced evidence for a subsistence and settlement system that likely supported a population of 100 or more. Material culture recovered in association with one house, various domestic surfaces, and from a high-elevation hunting locale revealed human use of the mountain spanning thousands of years (roughly 10,000 to 3,000 years ago). The excavated house joins the record of diverse Northern Great Basin house structures. Spatial analysis of recovered artifacts revealed specific activity areas at the site, and exotic artifacts suggest that households were connected to larger regional, social, and economic networks reaching into northern California and southwest Oregon.

Lecture presented by Michigan Archaeological Society:
http://www.miarch.org/